'Heroes' CD preserves war stories

Students paying tribute to veterans for Veterans Day.

Students paying tribute to veterans for Veterans Day.

November 01, 2006|VIRGINIA RANSBOTTOM Tribune Staff Writer

Local veterans' personal war stories are being preserved by a new generation for the next generation. Mishawaka high School's American History honors students have conducted oral interviews with veterans of World War II, Korea and Vietnam. The videotaped- and audiotaped interviews, including documentary film, still photos and student commentary, are now being edited for a "Hometown Heroes" CD. Copies of the tributary CD will be presented to the veterans for Veterans Day and viewed by the student body. With more than 1,500 veterans dying in the United States every day, so too are their personal war stories. "These are treasures that will be nothing but a memory in a decade," said social studies teacher Mike Breske. MHS junior Maxwell Cabello said the best part of the project was hearing the stories firsthand. "We are some of the last people that will get a chance to hear firsthand what happened so long ago." While many World War II veterans are already gone, the average age of a Korean veteran is 72 and most Vietnam veterans are pushing 60. Telling his World War II prisoner of war stories, 81-year-old Roger Favorite is featured on the CD. The retired teacher, counselor and principal for School City of Mishawaka heard the first shots fired at the Battle of the Bulge. "They were rocket guns," Favorite vividly remembered. The 106th Infantry Division Army private was with his group to replace a division on the Siegfried Line, what was supposed to be a quiet line in the Ardennes Forest, Belgium. Favorite said after a surprise attack by German regiments, the division found itself surrounded with no food, ammunition, weapons or machinery, and a lack of communication. Surrendering after four days in what would later be called the bloodiest battle in American history, prisoners were lined up in rows and marched to Germany. While Favorite was not mistreated by the Germans, food was scarce. Prisoners ate sawdust bread and used tin cans hung by shoestrings to cook bent grass soup. Their helmets served as bowls. Favorite lost 50 pounds in the four months he was a POW, but managed to maintain 100 pounds of body weight. He was moved to four different POW camps. Prisoners were marched through towns where Hitler Youth (children issued knives, as Favorite called them) were proud to be seen walking beside the POWs. The older townspeople wept. Being moved by boxcar was more dangerous. The prisoner train was bombed by Allies because of attached German ammunition cars. Although a target, the prisoners sang Christmas carols. It was Dec. 24, 1944. His last camp was a Russian compound filled with 2,800 prisoners under one big tent. They slept on the ground on their sides in pairs for warmth. That's where he read of President Franklin Roosevelt's death in a German newspaper printed in English for POWs. The headline read "World's worst enemy dead." Favorite never gave up hope because he knew the war would soon be over. One day the guards just disappeared. The bedraggled prisoners left the POW camps in groups of two or three. Favorite walked 20 miles the first night on his way to the American line. Along his journey, Germans came out of ditches to surrender to POWs, and he passed three big, black Packards, two of which were armed vehicles. In the middle was Russian leader Joseph Stalin. "I was close enough I could've popped him with a fist," Favorite said. Back in the States, he called his family to tell them he was alive. For more than four months all they knew was he was missing in action. He earned the Purple Heart. "While war is not the answer with loss of people and money," he said, "it made me appreciate my freedom and what we have more than most fellow Americans." Favorite's was the last of five interviews conducted by students. The hardest part of the project may be editing the content down to a 10- to 12-minute CD. Others honored on the CD include Vietnam veterans Richard Kronewitter and Steve Vellner; Korean War veteran Joseph Pataluch; and World War II veteran Raymond Gervais. The CD also will be sent to the Library of Congress Veterans History Project.Staff writer Virginia Ransbottom: vransbottom@sbtinfo.com (574) 235-6344